Still Life; Under the apple tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Life; Under the apple tree in the shadows.

36" x 48"

Mixed Medium on Paper

I did this painting/drawing yesterday, you know how I felt? 

I felt terrified.  I realize that every time I begin something artistic, it feels like jumping in to the deep end of a dark pool without swimming skills.  I resist and I am scared, every time!!! (Especially when there are longer periods between each dive.)  In the moments of creating I have seconds of joy, bliss, peace and other moments full of faithlessness, fear, self-loathing, and mostly the darkness of the unknown.  Yes, perhaps it's like I jumped in to the very deep dark water with a small flashlight on my head that as I spin downward, uncertain I will come up, my headlight flashes for moments and I see something, but it is still unknown.  When I do find my way back up, I am tired and then I begin the 'assessing' of what I saw or didn't see and how were my swimming skills?  The doubt that I should ever try again, the feeling of not really liking what I pulled up?  Wanting to throw it away as unvaluable and replace it with the more familiar.  

But......I will have patience.  I will honor my curiosity with courage-and fucking jump again.

New Work

Balance (For Now)
60" x 72"
Acrylic Latex Paint, Wax Pencil, Golden Charm with Safety Pin

(detail)
I finished this painting the other day. I have been hesitating to post this piece and the one below, which was completed 2 months ago. I have been hesitating because I am curious myself about the direction of my work, and quite afraid of critical reception. My own voice being the loudest. I feel a bit uncomfortable, the space in these paintings is new to me. However, I am choosing to breath into this discomfort without doing more because that is precisely what I am working with inside myself, taking the moment to pause before reacting to vulnerability in groundless space.


Shell 1.
Gesso, T-shirt, Dirt,
24" x 30"

studio visit

Anger; A Help In A Time Of Need

The Antics Of Quentin And Archie

Lilacs and Plums; Grandma and Grandpa

Never Saw Toys As Anything Other Then Toys

For Linda; A Favored American Setting

Here are the remaining paintings in this series. Each is 16" x 20" Acrylic Paint, Photo Collage, and Dirt on Canvas. I thought there we're 12, but apparently there are 11. That's a weird number! Maybe I'll do another?

I hung two of these this weekend at the reinstitute. A fabulous new art venue for warm weather, (its a converted barn). I am thinking of proposing something for 2011 there, its really an inspiring space.

I mentioned the titles in my previous 'We're All Dirt' post, (if you look back at the previous posts they've been added) These titles are "combines". Combining the title of the original painting (when there was one), with text that accompanied the original photographs. Thus, creating new meaning with what pre-existed. I am enchanted with the riddle of unity, or a continuous connection throughout everything.

We're All Dirt

Frustration; Fun and Games

Chinese Money Plant; Bumbershoot Against A Masher

Milkweed and The Green Pitcher; A Thinker Of An Original Kind

Hope, Fear, and Stoic Patience

And Instant Hello and Goodbye

A Loving Group

I am excited to get these up! Remember the 22 canvas's I bought. The ones pre-painted with terrible landscapes and still lifes? Well, here they are after being collaged and painted with dirt. (These are 6 of 12 in this group.)
I knew I wanted to use some part of the original painting, because even though they were atrocious, clearly the person who painted them loved painting, (22 canvas's!)
The love element was intact.
The idea behind the collages is that we are all a part of everything, and I imagined what it would be like to be a little bit of everything and we will all be dirt at some point. Dirt is magical, alchemical in property. The people in the photographs have long since returned to the dirt, and the painter of these paintings is now dirt. Dirt continues to generate life from life.....
I have much more to say about this project, and will elaborate when I post the other ones, including titles.

Raining on my spring flowers

Raining on my spring flowers
44" x 44"
Mixed Medium on Canvas

Spring Is Here!!!!

Yellow Spring
5' x 4'
Mixed Medium on Canvas

Untitled Drawing
12" x 16"
Mixed Medium on paper

Untitled Drawing/Painting 2
12" x 16"

Untitled Drawing/Painting 3
12" x 16"

Spring Green Triptec
3pcs 11 x 14 each
Mixed Medium on Canvas Board


The drawings were done in transition between winter and spring, the large yellow canvas I have been working on, ( Its done now!) for the last month or so..and the last piece was a "daily" painting completed today......I am still working and working on how to work more!!!

The Great American Extinction

The Great American Extinction
18" x 24"
Acrylic, Mixed Medium on Canvas



This painting is 3D, with lots of layers...(I'm quite pleased with it!!!). It was something that required patience and multiple steps, not my usual spit 'em out process. Again, I cannot stress how excited I am to be coming home soon so that I might be able to stretch these ideas further in my own studio and home environment!!!!

When The Present Becomes The Past

When The Present Becomes The Past
16" x 24"
Acrylic, Mixed Medium on Canvas





This is the beginning of something new... and something old

History

Front Center

Front Right Side

(Close up detail)

History
20" x 26"
Mixed Media on Canvas

There are three photos...so you can see it better, there is dimensional movement that does not come across in flat photo's. This painting is the first illustration of some ideas that have been brewing.

Pink Bouquet

Pink Bouquet
12" x 12"
Acrylic on Canvas

Geraniums In The Back Yard

Geraniums In The Back Yard 12" x 12" Acrylic on Canvas

Another floral study on canvas. The second photo is of the painting over the sides of the canvas..its cool.

Snapdragons

Snap Dragons 12" x 12" Acrylic on Canvas

This is the last of the beautiful bouquet, but that only gives me reason to by myself more flowers! As much as I dislike canvas, I do like the acrylics. Its really interesting to watch the variance of the same bouquet but with different mediums and surfaces. With this one I painted the sides of the canvas too, which I don't show in the picture, but it gives it a 3D quality which is really fun!
I can't wait to get more flowers!

"Uncool"

Evening Purple Mountains
Acrylic
24" x 15"

Le Witt, wrote his sculptor friend Eva Hesse the following:

"STOP IT AND JUST DO"
" Try and tickle something inside of you, your "weird humor". You belong in the most secret part of you. Don't worry about cool, make your own uncool. You are not responsible for the world---you are only responsible for your work, so DO IT. And don't think that your work has to conform to any idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be."

Thank you Le Witt! (and thank you Nicole for sharing this with me!) I think that he speaks to all of us artists...and it has definitely been the message of the moment.

This painting is really funny to me, because the colors are almost horrific, but there is so much about this painting that's making me happy, and it has a lot to do with witnessing my personal nuances poke their noses out of this weird landscape.

Studies of Sky and Elements

These little studies are really enjoyable...kind of like my previous Tomato project, but much more interesting...the sky holds my attention every day, with its poetic beauty and infinite vastness.

1. Blue Mountain
Acrylic on canvas
10" x 10"

2. Sky and Beach Grass
Acrylic on Canvas
10" x 10"

Purple landscapes...

Purple Trees
10" x 10"
Acrylic on Canvas

Purple Flower Field
21" x 19"
Mixed Medium on Wood

Sky and Land
26" x 20"
Oil on Wood

"Here are a few portfolio & exploration paintings I did this week.
The first one was an inspiration from the first thing I saw driving this morning...Three stripes of wet color, violet-gray, dark purple, and then gold...
The second painting inspired from an image I saw of spring flowers, and I am desperate for some of those in the real!
And the last painting is completely made up, I was just thinking of stripes of color meeting the sky, and you all know how much I love the clouds..probably my favorite thing to watch. But whats interesting is seeing them all together, because I am obviously having an affair with purple..a new color companion.
I actually completed them in the opposite order, then I posted them."